


fresh air and starlight

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: "The Good Book" post ep, Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Het, Romance, Schmoop, post ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 04:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11570124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: At the Cooper's Crossing 150 year party, Tom realises Chris is missing and goes to find her.





	fresh air and starlight

**Author's Note:**

> For gen prompt bingo : the sky at night 
> 
> Post ep to "The Good Book"

Tom breathes a sigh of relief when he steps out from the party into the cool air of the night. Partly, it's because of the sudden quiet, the doors doing their job of muffling the talk and laughter and music from within. Partly it's because of the fresh air. 

Mostly it's because he sees Chris sitting on a bench across the road, looking up into the night sky. 

It could be the way she looks in the starlight, it could be the couple of beers he's had, it could be the shock of nostalgia or the fear of yesterday and the hope of tomorrow, but the sight of her takes his breath away. He doesn't move for a long moment, like he's afraid of breaking a spell but then she looks in his direction and when she sees him, she smiles and a different kind of spell is cast. 

It's one that gets him moving, jogging over to her. "Here you are," he says because one moment she'd been by his side as they'd chatted to Geoff and Kate, the next he'd looked around and she'd been nowhere to be seen. It had been Kate who said she thought she'd seen Chris go outside and Tom hadn't even had to make an excuse. Both Kate and Geoff had moved away from him without a word, like they assumed that there was nowhere else he was going to be but by Chris's side. 

Well, he has to admit they're not wrong. 

Chris is still smiling as he sits down beside her. "I just needed some air." She fans herself with one hand as if to prove her point and Tom feels himself frown, cups her cheek in his hand and looks deep into her eyes. If anyone's passing by, they're going to assume he's being romantic, but he knows, and he's fairly sure she does too, that he has more medical matters in mind. Indeed, there's a hint of asperity in her voice when she says, "Tom, I'm fine," but he's not going to apologise for his action. 

"Darling, you were in a bus crash yesterday," he reminds her. He would say more but the very real memory of standing not too far away from here and hearing the squeal of brakes, the crash of metal, the screams of passengers, steals his voice momentarily. And in any case, the funny little smile that plays around Chris's lips wrecks his train of thought. "What?" 

"Nothing." Her cheeks turn a little pink and she doesn't break eye contact with him. "You just haven't called me 'darling' in a long time." 

He feels his own cheeks start to flush. "It just slipped out," he hears himself say and, suddenly, absurdly, he finds himself remembering the first time he'd ever used that epithet with her. It had slipped out then too, one night when they'd just started their relationship and he'd been hurrying home to her, giddy at the prospect of spending time with her even as he'd been cursing Violet Carnegie and her diabetes and her stubborn nature for making him leave Chris in the first place. Except Chris hadn't been there and he'd found Gibbo lying on the couch, a shit eating grin on his face, his eyes dancing with mirth as he'd given Tom hell about being hit by Cupid's arrow. He wonders for a moment what his friend would say if he was here now, if he knew that they were finally going to give it another go. Probably something along the lines of, "It's about bloody time, mate," before wondering what the hell Tom is doing thinking about him when he should be thinking about Chris. 

Which, he has to admit, is an excellent point. 

"It's ok," she says as she shuffles a little closer to him. "I like it." 

Tom takes the hint, loops an arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer to him. His fingers reach up to play with her hair while his other arm slides around her midsection. "So, are you enjoying the fresh air and..." He was about to say sunlight, as per their conversation in the hospital, but a quick glance into the night sky puts paid to that idea. "Starlight?" he says instead and he's rewarded by a soft chuckle. 

"You can't see stars like this in Melbourne," she tells him, tilting her head up. He follows her gaze, experiences a sudden sense of disorientation. 

"Or in Africa," he says. "It's been a long time since I've seen the Southern Cross." She's quiet then and he looks down at her, sees her biting her lip. "Darling?" This time, it doesn't slip out, it's purely calculated and when she looks back to him, her eyes are huge and dark. "Are you having second thoughts?" 

"No." The word is so quick to leave her lips that she can't be lying. "It's just..." She presses her lips together and he waits. He's waited for her for a long time, he can wait a little more. It doesn't take long for her breath to leave her in a rush, for her to start talking quickly. "It's a big step. Leaving Melbourne... leaving everything... and we haven't seen one another in months, we haven't been together in years..." She stops, closes her eyes and takes two short, quick breaths. When she opens her eyes again, she sits up a little straighter, looks him right in the eye. "Kiss me quick?" 

And once again, he's back years in the past at the start of their relationship, back when they stood on the front porch of her house and he'd been stuttering apologies for his jealousy over some French rally driver whose name he couldn't even remember now. They were the very words he'd said to her then, the very words that had started them as a couple, back when they were young and in love and they thought they knew it all. There's something fitting, he thinks, about hearing them again now, when they're both a little older, hopefully a little wiser and, in the aftermath of the last few days, sure that neither of them want to waste any more time. 

"Quick... slow..." He cups her face in his hands. "I'll kiss you any way you want... for the rest of my life." She shivers and he isn't sure if it's because of his touch or his words or the promise they hold, but when his lips find hers and electricity courses between them, he decides he doesn't really care. 

After all, they've got plenty of time to figure it out.


End file.
